The Room
by WildwingSuz
Summary: Mulder and Scully end up locked up together naked in a room by Krycek for 36 hours while the Smoking Man takes care of business.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note****s**  
This is a version of the original story "Captive" by X-Phan, which I read on the Gossamer site. When I finished it, however, I couldn't help but think that there were a lot of different ways this could play out and then couldn't resist writing my own. This is not meant to be plagiarism of X-Phan's story, simply a different take on the same situation that the original author created—much like we borrow CC's characters to play with them.

**NOTE:** This is the R rated version of this story. The original NC-17 version can be found on my website, link in my profile.

**Timeline:** Sometime mid-Season 7, alternate universe by the end.

**Spoilers:** very mild ones for Alpha, Monday, Unruhe, Mind's Eye, Theef, probably more.

**The Roo****m**  
By Suzanne L. Feld  
Rated R for adult situations and language

**Prologue**

Grinning widely, Alex Krycek tossed the note and keys into the room then slammed the door and double-checked the deadbolt, making sure it was secure. He peeled off a pair of latex gloves and stuffed them in his jacket pocket, turning to the two hulking men awaiting him at the top of the stairs. "Be careful not to touch anything without gloves," he told them in Russian as they turned and preceded him down. The metal staircase rang with their footsteps in the huge, echoingly empty warehouse as they went down two flights from the loft. "They shouldn't be able to find their way back here after we let them go, but no use taking chances."

"Da," the taller one agreed as they crossed the empty, oil-stained cement floor to the door. "And if they do find it, Nishka's boys'll get blamed. Their prints are all over the place after that last heist."

All three laughed as they left the old warehouse, Krycek shoving the heavy steel-core door closed with his elbow and giving it a good kick to make sure the latch caught. The three climbed into a nondescript, windowless white panel van which drove out of the graveled parking lot but only a few blocks away, pulled over to a mailbox. One black-clad arm, the hand wearing a glove, poked out the passenger window and dropped a handful of letters into the chute. Laughter drifted back as the van pulled away.


	2. Day 1

**Day 1**

Scully woke slowly, coughing, her head pounding, aware mostly that she felt chilled and that she was curled into a ball. She opened her eyes to blank white walls and bright diffused sunlight, not moving a muscle until she could assess the situation. She was laying on what appeared to be an uncovered mattress, although for the life of her she couldn't remember why. Her head was throbbing, neck sore as well, and her mind seemed to refuse to work properly, like it was full of cotton. Something was terribly wrong but she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Then she heard Mulder's voice, close by and scratchier than usual.

"Scully? Are you all right?" He coughed a few times, sounding congested.

Very slowly and carefully she lifted her head, but didn't see him anywhere in the empty white-walled room. She did spot an open doorway across from where she lay, dimly showing a sink, toilet, and clear glass shower stall within. "I'm--" she cleared her throat, wincing at the sore scratchiness of it and the throb in her head-- "here, Mulder. Where are you?"

"Right behind you," he said in a gravelly voice and without thinking she rolled over and her knee touched something warm and soft. That was when she realized she was stark naked and, when she turned her head and saw him, that he was too. Without considering it first, she leaped off the bed and stumbled to her feet holding her pounding head. "Why are we naked, Mulder?" she gasped from the pain in her head, crossing her legs and bending at the waist to hide as much of herself as she could without removing her hands from her painfully throbbing temples. "What in the _hell_ is going on?"

Mulder was laying on the mattress, turned so that the front of his lower half was hidden but twisted at the waist and up on one arm, facing her with an equally astounded expression that she could just see out of the corner of her eyes. His long, lean body was as bare as hers, not even a watch gracing it. "I wish I knew, Scully," he said slowly, rubbing his forehead with his free hand. "I have no clue."

She reached up to find that she wasn't wearing her crucifix, then looked down at her bare feet, which were standing on green indoor-outdoor carpet, then back up at him. "Do... do you have a really bad headache, sore neck, bad taste in your mouth, feel dizzy?"

"Yeah." He coughed again, then cleared his throat.

"We were probably chloroformed, then. Those are the symptoms. But... why?" She let go of her head and crossed her arms over her breasts, straightening up to look around for her clothes, but felt her head swim and took a shaky step forward as she began to lose her balance. The next thing she knew Mulder's strong hands were on her shoulders holding her upright, but he wasn't in sight. "Why are you standing behind me?"

"Because _we are naked,_ Scully. I'm trying to preserve what dignity and modesty of ours I can—who knows who's watching? As far as I can tell, our clothes aren't in this room with us. Why don't you sit down?" He urged her towards the mattress, then the warm hands disappeared as she turned and sat on the edge, huddled with her arms wrapped around her chest and both legs to one side, knees tightly together. The bare mattress appeared to be brand new and was a good foot thick.

She looked up as he turned away, going to the corner at one end of the mattress and crouched, apparently digging at something by the way the muscles in his bare back moved. He turned with a twenty-ounce bottle of water in his hand and brought it to her, then made a trip to take a few more bottles of water into the bathroom. "What are you doing?" she asked, unscrewing the cap as he went by with a row of bottles held against his bare torso with one arm, the other hand covering his crotch.

"Putting some bottles of water in the toilet tank," he said. "It'll get them nice and cold. It's an old college dorm trick I learned at Oxford."

"Makes sense," she agreed.

"Just don't flush with them in there," he said. "They kind of gum up the works."

"I bet they do! Then don't put too many in, I don't want to have to fish out half a dozen if I need to use the toilet."

He removed a few, putting them in the sink. "We'll leave two at a time in there, and replace each one we take," he said, setting the lid back on the toilet with a glassy-sounding clunk. Then he went prowling around the room with both hands covering his genitals. She couldn't help but watch his flexing buttocks, though she was sure to look away before he turned around and caught her.

She took a few sips of the lukewarm water as he went to the grey steel door, which had no sign of a lock or handle or hinges, and even a few good kicks with the bottom of his foot didn't so much as budge it. There were no windows, and the only other room was the tiny doorless bathroom she'd already spotted. There were a couple of good-sized cardboard boxes and cases of bottled water at one end of the bed, but nothing else other than the mattress was in the room.

Even through the depths of her terrible headache she couldn't help but admire his lean, well-muscled male body as she watched him walk around and think that, of all the people she might have ended up locked in a room naked with, he was probably the one she'd have chosen just for the eye candy. While he investigated the bathroom she let her eyes roam around the room they were in, which she figured to be maybe twenty by twenty, sipping at the tepid water. The walls, which appeared to be drywall, were painted a flat white and above them was a high peaked ceiling that looked to be corrugated sheet metal held up with I-beams. There were two large skylights, one on either side of the peak, both showing a cloudless blue sky. But the white-painted walls were a good twelve to fifteen feet high even before they reached the steel roof, and smooth as glass besides—it was like being in the bottom of a Saltine box stood on end. On top of that, who knew how high up they were to begin with even if they could reach the skylights? The sunlight coming through the glass high above was midday bright but diffused with no shadows, which meant that the sun wasn't above the roof but to the sides, and that most likely meant they were up high.

Then she saw the piece of paper and set of keys on the floor at the base of the mattress and, casting a glance to make sure Mulder was still investigating the bathroom with his back to her, leaned over and grabbed them.

Mulder came out shaking his head as she sat back down covering her breasts as much as she could with one arm. "We are in deep trouble, Scully," he said gravely, coming to sit on the edge of the mattress a few inches away from her. "There's--"

"You have no idea," she interrupted, handing him the typewritten piece of paper and dropping the keyring between them.

The note read:

You will be released in 36 hours after we've taken care of some business we don't want you two to meddle in. No one will miss either of you, we've made sure of that. Enjoy your unplanned vacation and don't do anything I wouldn't do!!

There was no signature, but they knew who was behind this if not exactly who had written this note and carried out their humiliation. "Damn that black-lunged bastard to hell," Mulder swore. "But why in the hell are we naked?"

"Probably in case we did manage to escape," Scully sighed, putting down the water bottle and rubbing at her right temple with the fingers of one hand. The headache had gone back quite a bit but wasn't completely gone although the water had helped her sore throat. "My guess would be that we're either in a city in a dangerous part of town or out in the middle of the country. Either way, we're unlikely to go wandering around sans clothing. My guess, for the record, is the country—maybe in a silo or something like that--since we can't hear a thing from outside."

"And why in the flying fuck are my keys here?" he added angrily, lifting the keyring that sat between their bare flanks.

"Those are yours?" she asked, and he nodded. After a moment she said, "Frustration maybe? A tease? Psychological warfare? You have your keys but no way to get to your car or apartment."

"Yeah, probably," he said, tossing them on the other side of the room, where they landed at the base of the blank wall with a sad jingle. "Jesus. What now?"

Scully sighed, keeping her eyes away from him. "My guess is that there aren't any towels or anything in the bathroom to cover up with?"

"Not unless you want to try and make a bikini out of cheap toilet paper, and I doubt it'd hold together for very long at any rate," he replied. "That's what I started to tell you earlier. No towels, not even a washcloth, just a half-dozen rolls of thin toilet paper that feels like it should be in a gulag, and a bar of Irish Spring. And no door on the bathroom, not even hinges where one would go."

She groaned but didn't comment. The implications of _that_ were clear enough to both of them, but she didn't want to think about it just yet; there were more urgent problems. "Well, in that case we're going to have to decide how to handle our nudity," she said, deciding that forthrightness was probably best at this point. "It's not logical for both of us to keep trying to cover ourselves and not look at each other; it's not going to work anyway if we're going to make an effort to escape. And if we don't we're apparently stuck here for the next three days—depending on how long we were unconscious—so we may as well get used to seeing each other naked since we have no choice in the matter."

"What do you mean, 'handle' our nudity?"

She took a deep breath. "I mean we may as well take a good long look at each other and get it over with. They say that you get used to seeing other people naked fairly quickly at nudist colonies, or so I've heard. If we don't try to hide from each other then that should happen for us."

Mulder snorted. "And what if I have a... reaction... to you? I _am_ locked in a room with a beautiful naked woman and though you might not think it from the last few years I am a normal, comparatively young, fairly healthy—other than being accident-prone—heterosexual male animal."

"I'm a doctor, Mulder. Trust me, you don't have anything I haven't seen before. Your getting aroused is perfectly natural in these circumstances." Scully felt her face warming and was glad her hair hid it with her head tilted forward. She willed herself to stop the damn blushing before they faced each other; her idea certainly wouldn't work if she was acting like a silly sixteen-year-old virgin!

"All right, then, you've been fairly warned. What do you want to do?"

_God, please just don't let him be aroused, _she prayed. _ I've got enough to deal with here._ "On the count of three we stand up and face each other, no hiding, no shyness, and look as much as we want," she said, hoping the color was gone from her face. "From there, just ignore the fact that we're naked and we'll get used to it." _ I hope. _ A beat or two. "One... two... three!"

She stood and stepped back, dropped both hands to her sides, and brought her head up. Mulder was staring right back into her eyes from two feet away and she knew he was as uncertain about looking down at her as she was at him. Of course she'd seen him naked before, more than once, but that had always been in some type of medical emergency and not quite the same as this. Taking a deep breath, she let her eyes skim down his neck to his broad shoulders, then across his wide chest and muscular arms, pausing at the narrow waist. She was unable to stop herself from thinking that he had just the right amount of body hair for a man, enough to look masculine but not bestial. She let her eyes continue down over his slightly convex lower abdomen and skimmed past his—oh, Lord!—partly erect and still growing penis resting on his testicles against a bed of nearly-black pubic hair, then down the muscular legs to the big feet that were planted on the ugly green carpet.

"Of course, you know that if _I_ had suggested this you'd have called me an opportunistic pervert or something of the kind," he cracked. "I have to say, Scully, it's a shame you hide that figure under those bulky suits."

She looked up at his grinning face and, putting her hands on her bare hips, huffed. "Can we focus? Get your mind out of the sixth grade and let's see if we can figure out how to get out of here, Mulder. Besides, you've seen me naked before so it can't be that big of a surprise."

"Antarctica doesn't count; you were covered in green alien goo which was, in fact, almost the same color as this hideous carpet," he said, his eyes dipping down to skim over her body again. "Neither does the shower in Fort Marlene. You wouldn't _let_ me look that time."

Scully found herself surprised at how relaxed she was with their nudity, but also relieved. And if she continued to be honest with herself, it was no great torture to look at Mulder sans clothing even if it was difficult to stop from outright staring at his stiffening... If nothing else she certainly took that as a compliment, not that she'd let _him_ know that. "Well, if anyone's watching or recording us, they can do so to their heart's content. I'm glad the temperature seems to be comfortable in here, though I was pretty cold when I first woke up."

"Natural solar heat, probably, I don't see any heating vents," Mulder pointed up at the skylights and she was suddenly aware of the thatch of dark hair under his arm. Thank goodness she'd just shaved the day before and didn't have to worry about turning into a sasquatch while they were here. "Think we can get up there, Scully?"

She looked up at the roof. "I don't see how, but I guess we'll have to try."

"All right, then, let's do it." Mulder went over to the boxes at the foot of the mattress, crouched, and began to dig through them, the muscles of his back shifting and flexing. "Let's see what we've got here. Hm, this one's food. Well, it isn't gourmet but we won't starve. Hey—seeds!"

As she walked over Mulder held up a small bag of what looked to be trail mix. As he tore it open she knelt next to him, shifting through the contents of the box to see what was in there. He was right; it wasn't what she would have chosen to eat this weekend, but there was plenty of protein and carbs to see them through a few days: several boxes of crackers, from Ritz to saltine; a couple of jars of no-brand smooth peanut butter and Cheez Whiz; small boxes of beef jerky, Slim Jims, protein bars, and granola bars; assorted single-size bags of chips and trail mix; a few tins of sardines; several large wrapped sausages; and best of all, a half-dozen or so small Granny Smith apples rolling around among everything else.

"I recognize these," Scully said, hefting one of the bulky summer sausages and then a small box of fancy English tea biscuits. "These come in gift baskets, like you give for housewarmings or Christmas. I get this stuff twice a year from my aunt and uncle in Ireland. We've got someone's Christmas basket leftovers!"

Mulder snorted laughter as he cracked a seed, tossing the shell halves into the box as she set the sausage and crackers back in it.

"Hey, don't do that," Scully said, picking them out and handing them to him. "Isn't there a garbage can in the bathroom?"

"Nope. Was just trying to keep the place up to your insane level of neatness."

She shot him a glare, picking up the box of granola bars and opening it. "At least _I'm_ not afraid to open my fridge due to what may be growing in there."

"Ka-zing, Scully shoots and scores. So what are we supposed to do with garbage?"

"Throw what we can in the toilet, I guess, until we empty something to put it in; I'm not living in a mess for even just a couple of days. Not to mention the vermin it might attract. What's in the other box?"

He stood, his knees popping lightly, and stepped over to it. "Oh, god. Torture."

Frowning, she followed while tearing open a granola bar, and closed her eyes briefly when she caught sight of the box's contents. "Aren't those things illegal in whatever state we're in?"

He tossed the shells into the box and this time she didn't protest; this would serve just fine as their garbage can. "Probably, unless it's West Virgina—I don't think anything's illegal there," he cracked, digging in the trail mix bag for another sunflower seed. "They're all yours, Scully. I'd rather count the rivets in the roof if it's all the same to you."

She bit into the granola bar as she turned her back on the watermarked, slightly moldy box of old Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Though she hadn't checked the date on the box of granola bars, she would guess it was well past expiration but beggars couldn't be choosers, and luckily there was nothing in it that would turn poisonous—just stale. She went over and got her warm bottle of water and used it to help swallow the gooey mass in her mouth, then nibbled on the bar as she made her own circuit of the two rooms, tossing the empty wrapper into the book box as well. Mulder stayed in the corner, staring down at the two cases of water, and she left him to commune with it.


	3. Day 1 Cont

Day 1 - cont.

Just a few minutes later she had to agree with Mulder's assessment—there wasn't much here to work with. She was heading back over to the mattress to sit down after a cursory examination of the bathroom when a loud thump and sudden cursing made her turn to see Mulder whirling away from the wall holding one hand with the other, bent over. Behind him, she saw a hole in the white drywall that showed something grey behind it. "Mulder, what the...?"

"It occurred to me that we could break holes in the walls and use them to climb up," he gritted out between clenched teeth, standing up straight and holding out his hand for her to examine. "It didn't occur to me that the walls might be filled with goddamn concrete!"

"Why didn't you hit it with a book instead of your hand?" she asked with exasperation as she manipulated his long, slender fingers and checked his knuckles. She couldn't help but note that he had finally gone down, but even so still had some length there.

"Obviously, I—ouch!--didn't think of it," he mumbled, turning to glare at the wall.

Shaking her head, Scully let go of his hand, forcing back the sudden and unexpected urge to run her hands over his lightly furred chest. "Just bruised, it'll hurt for a while but should be fine. Good thing you didn't hit it harder, you could have broken your hand."

"Well then, I guess we'll have to build a tower to get up there. You know, the team-building stuff we never did so here's our chance. I think if we can get you to the top of the wall, you can swing up on that crossbeam--"

Scully stared at him, any thoughts of touching him other than to knock some sense into him gone from her head. "Whoa, there, G-man. What do you mean, 'you'? _ I'm_ not climbing up there! A fall from that height could easily break a bone--or worse. This floor's probably concrete or steel under the carpet, it certainly feels hard enough."

Mulder put his hands on his hips, staring down at her with raised eyebrows. "This may be _your_ idea of a fun weekend, Scully, but I'd like to get the hell out of here. Don't get me wrong, the sights are well worth any incarceration--" he waggled his eyebrows at her, but she noted he didn't look below her chin for once-- "but I'm going to go stir-crazy locked up in here for three days."

"And if we do get out? What then? Go gallivanting off across the countryside in our birthday suits?"

"We'll take that as it comes. Don't you want to try and get out of here?"

"Yes, but I don't look forward to trying to set broken bones using old hardcover books and cheap toilet paper!"

Shaking his head, Mulder went over and picked up a case of water, carrying it to the corner where the bathroom doorway met the main room's wall. She couldn't help but watch the way the muscles in his arms and chest bulged, then tore her eyes away as he turned back to get the other case. "I think right here is about the best place. It's where the roof is lowest and there's a beam just a few feet away. And to allay your concerns, _Doctor_ Scully, we'll pull the mattress up behind us so if we fall, we'll fall on it."

Heaving a sigh, she gave in and helped. There was some heated discussion and several design revisions, but eventually they had the two cases of water, the box that had had the food in it upside-down with a few books inside it for stability, and the rest of the books stacked as high as they would go. That gave them about three feet, and with her standing on his shoulders she estimated she just might be able to reach the top of the wall and pull herself up and reach the beam. From there it was a good five feet to the next one, which was just to one side of the skylight, but she'd cross that bridge when she got to it.

Mulder carefully climbed up on the stack of books, leaning this way and that to make sure they wouldn't tilt or fall. Crouching down facing away from the wall, he cupped his hands and smiled at her, saying, "Let's do this. Upsy-daisy."

She froze, realizing what he'd see if he looked straight up once she was on his shoulders. But it was too late to back out now so she said, "Mulder, one thing. Don't look up once I'm on your shoulders—I am _not_ comfortable with that." She felt her face warming again and cursed her fair skin as she put one bare foot into his hands and reached for the wall behind him.

He frowned with apparent confusion, then his forehead smoothed out and he nodded understandingly, averting his eyes. For once he seemed to restrain himself from a smart remark, ducking his head as he lifted her and she stepped from the mattress direct to his shoulder as he raised her high enough, bracing herself on the wall with one hand then lifted her other foot to his shoulder. He reached up and held her ankles loosely. "You okay up there? I'm going to stand up slowly."

"About as okay as it gets," she said, standing on his bare shoulders, facing the wall with both palms against it. Glancing down she saw that his head was still bowed, showing the nape of his neck, and from her vantage pointed saw that he appeared to be growing erect again--and almost missed moving her hands as he began to rise. As he slowly stood up she walked her hands up the wall, feeling him trembling beneath her. "Are your shoulders all right? I can feel you shaking."

"You don't weigh as much as a down feather," he said scoffingly. "It's my legs--it's hard to go up from a squat this slow, but I don't want to fling you into orbit."

"If you tossed me through the glass that would solve at least one of our problems," she pointed out.

He ignored her. "Okay, I'm up," he said as she felt his hands leave her ankles and she looked down to see that he appeared to be standing up straight, his back just a few inches from the wall but his hands flat back against it now. "I'd hurry if I were you, Scully, these books feel like they want to be evil."

Carefully she tilted her head back, looking up. The top of the wall was just inches above her head and carefully she slid one hand up the wall, and had actually gotten her fingers over the top of it before their house of cards collapsed. Mulder let out a wordless yell of warning and she felt herself falling, pushing away from the wall with both hands knowing the mattress was right behind her. She hit it on her back hard enough to knock the air from her and lay gasping for a moment, but managed to work air into her lungs before she began to feel like she was smothering; as a child she'd fallen out of a treehouse and knew how it felt. Once able to breathe again she sat up and looked for Mulder, finding him on the floor to her left, rubbing his knee. "Wha... what happened?" she gasped. "Shit, my... headache... _was_ gone."

He looked over at her, concern written across his expressive face. "Are you all right?"

"Just had... the breath... knocked from me, I'll be... fine in a minute. You?"

"Same, plus I banged my knee on the floor when I rolled off the mattress. I wanted to make sure you wouldn't land on me and hurt either of us," he said, kicking aside a couple of dry but water-swollen books that lay on the floor nearby. "Pieces of garbage slid right out from under my feet. How close did you get, Scully?"

She sat up the rest of the way, drawing up her legs and wrapping her arms around them, feet crossed at the ankles. "I got my fingers over the top of the wall but the bad news is that there's only a very slight ledge there, not even an inch wide, nothing I could get a grip on, and something solid behind it," she said dejectedly, resting her chin on her knees. "Probably more concrete. Unless we can reach the beam itself it's a lost cause. The good news is that I saw several vents up there, so we're probably getting enough fresh air that we don't have to worry about asphyxiation."

He leaned back on his hands, stretching his legs out in front of him, and heaved a sigh. Scully had to avert her eyes; it had never occurred to her that she would be unable to keep her eyes off her partner in this situation or she might not have suggested looking at each other and then acting natural about their nudity. She was beginning to think that she'd never get used to this, nor tire of looking at his long, lean body. Or the fact that he apparently never stayed soft for long, at least in this situation.

"Well, then, I guess there's nothing to do but wait it out," he said in a clearly dejected voice, then glanced at her and added, with hope in his voice, "Unless you can think of something I didn't."

"I don't see what I could," she replied, shaking her head. "The skylight appears to be the only way out of here, and we can't reach it."

"In that case we have a new problem," he said slowly, sitting up. "I didn't want to deal with this until we had to, but I have _got_ to piss like a Russian racehorse, not to put too fine a point on it."

Scully nodded as she got to her feet. "There's nothing for it but to turn our backs and give the other as much privacy as possible when we have to use the bathroom," she said. "Let's put the mattress back on the other side of the room first."

Once that was done he headed for the bathroom while she carried the cardboard box over and packed the food back into it. When he was finished they stacked the books back into their warped box, then got bottles of water and snacks and sat on the mattress a few inches apart, backs against the wall, by silent agreement. Scully sat cross-legged, slowly eating an apple though it had occurred to her that she might want to save them for the next day. There was a good ninety percent carbs and protein in the box, very little roughage, and they were both going to get constipated without the fruit. On the other hand, she mused, that wouldn't be a bad thing in their current situation and was easily enough remedied once they were out. She mentioned it and he just grunted in reply, digging through a second bag of trail mix for sunflower seeds, piling the ones he found on the outside of the first bag. He was sitting with both legs spread out in front of him, knees slightly bent, both bags of trail mix between them. As hard as she tried, she was unable to quit glancing in his direction to see if he was up or down, and couldn't help noticing that he was more up—_far_ more up—than down.

The rustle of the bags, the crunch of her teeth biting into the crisp apple, and the light drip of a faucet in the bathroom were the only sounds for a time, then he began to crack sunflower seeds with his teeth and she had to suppress a smile at the familiar, comforting sound.

After a while he said, "What's the last thing you remember before waking up here, Scully?"

She thought about it for a bit. "Getting home from work Friday evening," she said slowly. "I closed the door, put my keys on the table, started to take my jacket off, then all I remember is waking up here."

"I went home, changed into sweats, and sat down on the couch to put my running shoes on," Mulder said. _Crack. _ "How could someone sneak up on us like that?"

Scully shrugged, noting that his head turned towards her slightly when she did so and glanced down, noticing that her breasts jiggled with the movement of her shoulders. What the hell, as long as he didn't get obnoxious she wasn't going to make an issue of his looking; it wasn't like there was much else to look at but each other. "There may be some memory loss involved. If I remember correctly it is possible to forget events from chloroform inhalation. But obviously we were surprised and neither of us put up a fight. When we woke up we didn't have a mark on us."

His head suddenly whipped towards her and his eyes bored into hers as she automatically looked towards the sudden movement and they gazed at each other. "Are you _sure_ you're all right, Scully?" he said with sudden urgency. "You haven't been... touched?"

Her heart nearly stopped, but then resumed just a little faster as she realized what he was alluding to. "No, I'd have noticed it before this," she said in a slightly shaky voice. "There would be physical... signs... and I'm sure I'd be sore at the very least considering how long it's... been... for me. The fact that I didn't even think of it says all I need to know."

"Yeah, I know what you mean by how long," Mulder sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if I remember how it all works."

Scully couldn't resist. "Is that why you watch those movies you don't own? Instruction manuals?"

He guffawed. "As good an explanation as any." Then he sobered, glancing over at her. "Does that bother you? To know I watch porn?"

Shrugging, she nibbled the last bits of yellow apple skin from near the stem. "Not really. But I do think porn is bad in general, it leads to objectification and unreal expectations. Some also promotes or glorifies violence against women and makes them into caricatures. It can also cause relationship problems, either by causing one of the partners to have unrealistic expectations or by having one person prefer porn to real sex, which often doesn't seem as good as what's on the silver screen."

They were silent for a few moments. "And on the other hand, it can be a safe release valve for dangerous urges and fantasies that might be carried out in real life by hurting other people," he finally said. "Or just a way to deal with a biological urge that it's better not to ignore."

"Is that why you watch it, Mulder? If I'm getting too personal, stop me," she added. "This may be none of my business, but I _am_ curious from a purely human standpoint."

_Crack_ and another sunflower seed was history. "No, I don't mind you asking," he said thoughtfully. "To be honest, I've never really thought about it. I guess it's just something to do, a way to while away the hours."

Jesus, that's sad, Scully thought, but didn't say so. Even if she spent much of her free time alone she felt she had a full and rich life, and was never bored.

"In return, can I ask you a personal question?"

She slanted a glance over at him from beneath her eyelashes. "As long as I don't _have_ to answer it anymore than you did the one I asked you."

"Of course. Have you ever watched porn, Scully? And I don't mean as a joke, I mean really watched it with the intent of orgasm, either by yourself or with a partner?"

At first she was offended, then made herself back off the outraged bit. It was a valid question, and equally as personal as the one she'd asked him. "Actually, yes, by myself a few times in college. One of my girlfriends had a tape that had been made by heterosexual women for women and it got copied and passed around, and I ended up with a copy. I watched it a few times... alone... but I gave it away when I went home for the summer and never got another. I don't even remember the title now."

She could feel the curiosity coming off him in waves, and braced herself. But instead of asking more questions he just heaved a sigh and cracked another sunflower seed between his teeth and shifted his legs around, lifting the one closest to her and bending it at the knee. Then, out of the blue with one of his amazing changes of subject, he said, "I haven't done very well by you getting you into this situation. I wish to hell I could at least get you out of here. God knows I'd like to be _somebody's_ knight in shining armor someday."

"I think you've done well enough. Think about Marty Glenn, Lucy Weider, and Caitlin Ross to name just a few that come to mind. And how many women did you save from botched transorbital lobotomies—including me, more than likely--from Gerry Schnauz by taking him down? Need I go on?" She knew damn well he was talking about Samantha, but wasn't going to say her name if he didn't.

"How about the ones I should have saved but didn't? Can we say Karen Berquist, or how about Pam Oates from the bank robbery?"

"I can name more than you," Scully said airily, wanting to change the mood, which was growing depressing. "I win."

They fell silent for a time, the only sounds the crack of Mulder's teeth splitting sunflower seeds and the faint drip from the bathroom faucet. Then he said into the quiet, "I've put you into serious danger far more than I've ever saved you. You usually save yourself after I get you into those situations."

"My job puts me in danger, Mulder. I accepted that when I decided to go into law enforcement in general and the Bureau in particular, so don't try to take responsibility for it. If I thought otherwise you'd know it--believe me you'd know it."

He snorted, sighed, and put his half-full water bottle over by the wall before scooping up the pile of split sunflower shells off the floor next to the mattress where he'd been piling them. He then got up and went into into the bathroom, removing the water bottles from the tank before tossing them into the toilet bowl and flushing. Back at the mattress, he picked up both bags of trail mix—now minus the seeds, apparently--and went to put them back in the box. Dusting off his hands, he began to pace around the room, rotating his head as if his neck hurt.

"You all right, Mulder?"

"Yeah, just bored. Realized that I still have a little bit of a headache and sore neck now that my foot's stopped hurting. Wonder what time it is?"

She glanced up at the skylight. The interior of the room was still just as bright as it had been when they'd awakened, but somehow she suspected it had gone from afternoon to early evening. "I'd guess around five or six. Hard to tell, though, when we can't see the sun."

More silence as he paced. Finally she got up and threw the small apple core in the toilet, flushing and watching to make sure it went down, then tossed her empty water bottle into the box of books and getting a cold one from the sink where Mulder had left them, obviously forgetting to put them back in the tank. While she was at it she put two more bottles into the cold water, and thought privately that it was a very good idea and one she wished she'd know about in college.

Lacking anything else to do she went back to the mattress, laid down on her stomach, and put her head on folded arms, closing her eyes.

"You going to sleep, Scully?"

"Probably not, but it's better than getting dizzy from watching you pace around."

Some time later she felt the end of the mattress dip and then sway as he crawled up on it next to her. She turned her head and cracked her eyes open to see him sprawled on his stomach just a few inches away between her and the wall, gazing back at her. "When in Rome..."

She snorted lightly and closed her eyes, letting her mind drift and trying to think about nothing in particular. Especially their conversion about porn and her confession that she'd masturbated to it in the past. That would probably give him some fantasy fodder when they got out of here, she thought with a mixture of embarrassment and amusement.

A short time later he spoke again: "Is it just me, or is it getting really warm in here?"

"Mmn, I'm comfortable, or at least as comfortable as it gets in this situation," she murmured. "Temperature-wise, I mean."

She felt the mattress dip again and opened her eyes to see him up on one elbow facing her, swiping a hand down his dark-haired chest and showing it to her. It gleamed with moisture. "I'm sweating. You don't think this could be some type of torture, do you?"

"What, turning the temperature up?" He nodded. "Unlikely. I think it's more like the greenhouse effect from the skylights. It'll probably cool off after dark."

"That's probably not for a few hours so I'm going to go take a cool shower," he said, then waggled his eyebrows at her as he got to hands and knees. "Want to join me, Scully? I'll even scrub your back."

She didn't bother to answer him, just closing her eyes again with a sigh as she felt him back off the mattress. As she lay drifting, not quite awake and not quite asleep, she heard the shower go on and then the spray muted as he stepped under it. For a few moments she listened to him moving around, then the thought occurred to her that the shower stall was made of clear acrylic panels and she could see him if she opened her eyes. His long, lean, muscular body with water running over that nice, tight--

_You stop that right there! _ She scolded herself, but any traces of drowsiness were now gone and she was as wide-awake as she'd ever been. Her heart wasn't pounding, but it was close._ Just because you're stuck in close quarters with a naked man does _not_ give you the right to turn into as much of a pervert as he is. _But the mental scolding did little to no good; her traitorous mind continued along its path until she couldn't resist anymore and turned her head to the other side, then carefully cracked her eyes just a little.

As she had hoped, he had his back to her and she opened her eyes just a little more, then they opened wide by themselves. Though the shower stall was lightly fogged she could still see him fairly clearly. The sight of his ass covered in soap bubbles before it was sluiced clean was just as awesome as she'd hoped and she let herself indulge in studying all of him that she could make out, enjoying the sight of his broad shoulders shiny with droplets of water and watching how the rivulets ran down the back of his thighs.

He shut off the water, beginning to turn around, and she slammed her eyelids shut. But the sight was branded on her mind, and despite herself she felt her body reacting to it. _Great, that's just what I need, horny and stuck in a room with a naked man—_and_ with no privacy,_ she added to herself._ Not to mention that we could, and likely are, being watched via a pinhole camera or something equally nefarious.  
_


	4. Day 1 Cont 3

Day 1 - cont.

"Ah, shit!"

"What's wrong?" she said immediately, opening her eyes and getting up on her elbows. He was standing inside the shower stall, hands at his sides and head hanging, wet hair dripping around him. She was unable to look away though she knew she should, feeling like she was devouring the sight of him standing there dripping wet and looking sleek and imminently tasty. _What in the hell is _wrong_ with me all of a sudden? _ she wondered, aghast at her own thoughts.

"There aren't any towels. The minute I open this door I'm going to freeze my ass off even with as warm as it is in here," he said. "The shower isn't what you'd call hot, but it was warm enough to fog up the glass." He reached out and drew little ovals on the steamy walls, which she realized were supposed to be UFOs when he also drew little stick figures with large triangular heads and big eyes around them.

As he looked over at her though the steamy glass Scully made herself avert her eyes. "Push the water off with your hands, or just wait in there until you're dry," she said, feeling how lame it sounded even as she said it. "Unless you want to try drying off with the toilet paper."

He snorted loud enough that she heard it clearly. "Not likely, I'd be picking bits of paper off of me for the entire time we're stuck here," he said with clear disgust, shifting feet. "Gee, isn't this fun."

"Yeah, well, about as fun as the whole situation," she replied, staring at the mattress in front of her face, unable to look at him any longer or she knew she'd do something stupid that they'd both later regret. Like licking every drop of water from his broad chest and shoulders. "How is it you can have infinite patience staking out any type of possible supernatural creature but not put up with sitting in a room with me for three days very well?"

"If it wasn't for your being here with me I'd literally be climbing the walls, and utterly insane before it got dark tonight," he shot back. "You're the only thing saving me from insanity."

"Been that way for years," she muttered, picking at a piece of lint.

"I'm probably glad I didn't hear that," he called, amusement clear in his voice. She glanced over to see him doing as she'd recommended, pushing water off one arm with the other hand. The steam—and his little alien drawings—were completely gone from the glass and while he was otherwise occupied she let herself study him again, unable to stop herself from wondering just how big he was; though he'd been partly or even mostly erect most of the day, she was fairly sure she hadn't seen his full length yet. She knew both as a woman with experience and as a doctor that there was no way to tell how large a penis would be erect when it was soft, but she suspected that due to its length even while flaccid that he wasn't small. Most guys she'd known just about disappeared when they weren't erect, but he still had some size. More than likely she'd find out sometime tomorrow as most men got, at the very least, a morning erection--

Suddenly she buried her head in her arms, aghast at her thoughts and feeling her face burn. On top of that, it was really beginning to sink in that they were going to have to share this mattress overnight, and who knew what could happen? Especially with the thoughts she'd been having all afternoon and, being honest with herself, being aroused physically by him. Thank God, she thought, that women didn't show their arousal as openly as men did. Regardless, she was keeping her legs tightly together, afraid that he might be able to smell her arousal; in college she'd had a boyfriend who had been able to accurately pick out that scent and she already knew that Mulder had a good sense of smell. Besides, she didn't need to be throwing pheromones around the room to get _him_ going as well or who knew what would happen.

He stepped out of the shower, hunched his shoulders and shook his head, then scrubbed at his hair with both hands. "Don't lay on the mattress until you're dry," she called, peering at him over her arm. "If it gets wet it might mold and that's all we need, mold spores to add to our enjoyment of these fine accommodations."

He grunted, leaning against the bathroom doorway with arms folded against his chest. Mostly, but not completely, erect, she couldn't help but notice. Still fairly impressive. "I'm pretty much dry other than my hair, there must be good ventilation because all the moisture is cleared out. And I'm not sweating anymore, so the shower served its purpose."

"Guess I'll find out tomorrow morning when I take my shower," she said, laying her head back down on her arms facing away from him.

"You going to sleep already?"

She sighed, hearing him move around but resisting the urge to see where he was and what he was doing. "For the second time, probably not but I don't know what else to do at the moment."

"Neither do I." The mattress dipped and she opened one eye partway to see him laying next to her, on his side facing her with his head propped on one hand, elbow on the mattress. Mostly down now, but twitching. Jesus, did he ever go completely soft unless he was hurt?! "Wanna play twenty questions?"

"No, nor Truth or Dare nor I Spy nor Spin the Bottle nor any other juvenile games you can think up," she murmured in return.

"Well, Jesus, Scully, we've got to do _something_," he said, sounding cross. "Other than sit here and wonder--"

Silence fell in the room after he suddenly stopped talking and, realizing what he might have been about to say, Scully opened her eyes, lifted her head, and gazed at him as he averted his eyes. "Wonder _what_, Mulder?" she said in a deceptively silky tone as she propped her chin on her hands. "What _exactly_ were you wondering about?"

He suddenly rolled onto his stomach, scooting away from her and towards the wall. But with it being a full-sized mattress and they being two full-sized adults, he couldn't go far. "You don't want to know, Scully," he mumbled, propped on his elbows and picking at the top of the mattress much like she'd done earlier. "I told you you'd end up getting pissed at me."

"Considering the furthest away we can get from each other is about ten feet, one of us getting annoyed with the other was bound to occur," she said. "Tell me what you were going to say, Mulder. I don't think we should keep any secrets from each other here."

He glanced over at her, then shrugged. "Fine. I was going to say I wonder what we'd be doing at home right now."

"What?!" She was taken aback and struggled not to show it. "That's not what I thought you were going to say."

"Really? What did you think?"

He had a sneaky little grin on his face and she knew she'd been set up, but it was too late to do anything about it now. Her patience snapped. "Fine, I'll be _honest_ after I insisted on it. I thought you were going to say something like you wondered what it'd be like if we were... together," she said grudgingly, turning her head forward, sliding down and resting her chin on her arms, unable to look towards him any longer. She found the area across the room where the carpet met the wall very interesting all of a sudden. The faucet dripped lightly in the moments of silence that followed her statement.

"I _always_ wonder about that," he said in an offhand tone.

The silence spun out for a time and finally she said, "Do you really?"

"Uh-huh. Don't you?"

She didn't reply right away, biting her lip. How honest should she be? She knew damn well he'd lied when he'd said he'd been wondering what they'd be doing at home; he'd been thinking about them having sex and she damn well knew it. "I... have, in the past," she said slowly. "But you know as well as I do, Mulder, that it wouldn't work out," she added. "We'd drive each other crazy in very short order. We barely manage as friends at times, never mind lovers."

"I think we do fine as friends, if we do sometimes fight like we were married," he chuckled. "And if you don't think we could manage a traditional romantic relationship what's to say that we can't be friends and lovers, instead of a couple?"

She slanted a glance at him, but he was still looking down at the mattress between his hands, which were splayed flat. "What do you mean? Like fuck buddies?"

He jerked back as if she'd slapped him and, after a beat said, with both humor and admiration in his voice as he gazed over at her, "I guess you _are_ a daughter of the Admiralty. Yeah, I guess you could call it that."

"It's also known as getting the milk without buying the cow, Mulder. All the benefits of sex without having to deal with the relationship. Been there, done that. No thanks, I'll pass."

"You have to admit, there isn't much else to do here and we _are_ dressed for that particular party," he grinned over at her, which she could just see out of the corner of her eye.

"You're welcome to enjoy yourself solo, Mulder, if you really feel you have to," she said coolly, folding her arms again and putting her head down on them, face away from him. "Just be quiet, I'm going to take a nap." _Oh dear God, I did _not_ just invite Mulder to masturbate in front of me._

He shifted around for a bit and for a few moments she was afraid he'd take her up on her suggestion, but then he stilled and, after a while, she heard his breathing deepen and even out. She lifted her head and looked over; it certainly appeared that he was asleep and she dropped her forehead to her arms, breathing out a silent gust of relief. Her body was tied in knots from keeping still and her legs pressed tightly together, her heart still pounding from their conversation. If he had so much as touched her he could have had her with the state she was in, and Scully hated admitting what he did to her physically. But there was no way she was simply going to agree to have sex with him on the terms he'd proposed, when it clearly didn't mean as much to him as it would to her. Once before she'd let herself fall in love and go to bed with someone that she knew didn't want a relationship with her and it had been an utter disaster. It wasn't about to happen again; she knew Mulder loved her but without commitment it wasn't going to work. Their partnership, and deep friendship, meant far too much for her to risk it.

Gradually she made herself relax but knew she'd never doze off with these thoughts roiling through her mind. He began to snore softly, then she knew he really was asleep and got up to use the toilet. Even so she had a problem letting go, keeping her eyes locked on him. But he stayed out and afterwards she lay down next to him again, moving close enough to feel his warmth. The light was fading so by her guesstimate it was probably somewhere around eight or nine o'clock at night. Before long she felt herself drifting, and thought in an offhand way that perhaps sleep was, indeed, the best thing for them both.


	5. Day 2

**Day 2**

He woke with a raging erection, which was usual, and with it pressed against what he knew was a warm female bottom, which wasn't. He opened his eyes to a splash of coppery hair in the dim light, and one inhalation of her unique scent verified who it was. The why and how he still wasn't sure of.

After a few moments it all came back. As he'd suspected might happen during the night, he was wrapped around Scully from the back, one arm under her head and the other tight around her small waist, holding her back against him. Her hands were crossed over and held onto his arm, and his legs were nestled behind hers. He was momentarily amazed at how well they fit despite the differences in their heights.

"Jesus Christ, Mulder, why are you still single?" Scully's groggy voice spoke into the room's dimness and at first he doubted what he'd heard.

"Wha... are you awake?"

"Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it. With what I feel pressing against me I can't believe you're single, Mulder. Most women who got ahold of _that_ wouldn't let it go no matter how much of an inconsiderate jerk you can be." Her tone was light, teasing, through the morning grogginess.

It was now or never. "Been saving it for you, Scully," he said close to her ear, lowering his voice and rubbing up against her. "There's no one--"

She tore free and leapt from the bed, shaking her head and clutching her hands around her shoulders. Even in the faint light he could see the goosebumps rising on her pale skin, and he suddenly felt very cold without her near. "Don't try that shit with me, Mulder," she snapped, her grogginess gone. "You've made it very clear what you want and I'm not falling for that crap ever again."

Instead of arguing with her, he beckoned. "Okay, okay, just come back here so we can warm up. No more funny stuff. It's freezing in here."

She was shivering, but looked meaningfully down at his still-strong erection. "I'm not sure it's safe."

"I can't do anything about that at the moment but I promise I won't, uh, do anything you don't want me to," he said.

"Then roll over and I'll spoon you," she said, stepping closer and rubbing her upper arms.

He wasn't sure how this was going to work but wasn't about to argue with her and rolled over to face the wall. He felt the mattress dip then her warm body wrapped around him, her legs curling beneath his and the warmth of her skin reached almost to his shoulders, her breasts pressed against his back. She wrapped one arm around his chest and the other stretched up, her head resting on it and her breath against the nape of his neck. He brought his right arm under his head and laid the other on her forearm, loosely lacing their fingers. Almost immediately he was much warmer. "I _am_ sorry if I did anything to make you uncomfortable," he said, knowing that neither of them were going back to sleep. "I, uh, tried to warn you yesterday."

"I wouldn't have minded if you hadn't tried to... to... seduce me," she replied, and the feel of her breath on his neck did not help his erection to go down at all. "I was joking around, and you had to go and take things to a level they don't need to be at."

"Were you really kidding? I mean, what you said?" His heart fell, because that had been quite the compliment even if she didn't want any part of it.

"Well, no, but I was trying to keep the mood light," she admitted. "But I'm sure you know you're fairly, er, well-endowed in that area."

"I've never been told that before, and certainly not by a woman I haven't slept—had sex with," he said, making sure to keep his tone light and playful. "In fact, I can say with some certainty that I've never discussed my penis with a woman I haven't been intimate with before. Not even my doctor, and she's usually pretty thorough."

Scully snorted warm air on his shoulder, laying her cheek against his spine. "Probably because your doctor is a pathologist, and that's not a body part you want to discuss with one of those," she said in an equally light tone. "So we probably should change the subject."

He sighed. "If you insist. So, how about those Knicks?"

She laughed, and the feel of her breasts moving against his back made his beginning-to-deflate penis think twice about it. "Even better, how about breakfast? Once we feel warm enough to move apart, that is."

"Don't take this wrong, Scully, but I could stay like this forever," he sighed. "Feels good no matter what the situation is."

"I agree, but I'm going to have to get up soon or I'll explode," she said. "I woke up once during the night and had to go to the bathroom but didn't want to get up. And it was pitch dark in here, did you happen to notice if there are any lights?"

"No, it never occurred to me, and I've got to go too."

"Then we'll take turns, and get breakfast—such as it is—while the other one's occupied."

"And then we'll meet back here and cuddle up again. I promise, no funny stuff."

"And no peeking."

"No worry, Scully, I'm not into golden showers," he smirked, and knew he deserved the light smack she gave the back of his head. "Okay, let's do this."

A short time later they were back on the mattress, Mulder sitting with his back against the wall and Scully between his legs with her back pressed to his chest. There was an assortment of food around them, and she had a jar of peanut butter and box of Ritz crackers in her hands. "I guess you know I won't kick you out of bed for eating crackers," he said into the tousled hair near her ear, and was rewarded with a laugh. Which went straight to his groin, truth be known, and he felt his cock stirring. _Down boy,_ he told himself mentally._ Sit. Stay._

"That's because I'm keeping you warm," she replied, tearing open a wax tube of crackers as he reached over to the side for one of the large sausages. "This is going to be fun without a knife."

"Yeah, I'm not sure what they thought we could do with plastic silverware that they had to withhold it," he agreed. "They must think we're modern-day MacGyvers to be able to escape from here with a plastic butterknife, stuffing from the mattress, and fifteen-year-old books."

She chuckled, but didn't reply. He watched as she broke Ritz crackers in half, scooping peanut butter out of the jar with them. A short time later, she said, "By the way, I don't know if you noticed but there's a push-light in the bathroom on the wall across from to the shower stall. It's not very bright and hung with double-sided tape, so we can bring it in here tonight in case we need it."

"Push-light?" he asked through a mouthful of dry, salty sausage.

"The kind that's really nothing more than a big button and you push it to light it up," she said. "My grandmother lived in a very old house and had them in every closet that didn't have a light."

"Runs on batteries?" he asked, reaching for the peanut butter as she put it aside. He preferred crunchy but anything had to be better than the sausage which, for being so dry, had a rather slimy aftertaste. For a moment he felt like a kid again, scooping it out of the jar with his fingers then licking them clean.

"Yeah, and I get your drift—we'd better save them since we have no clue how old they are," she said in a agreeable tone. "I wonder when in the hell they're going to let us out of here. Tomorrow morning? Afternoon? Evening?"

He didn't know what to say to that, not wanting to voice his fears that they might be abandoned here, and they finished the brief meal in silence. Done eating, he wasn't sure what to do with his hands and finally just put them on his thighs, wondering how long he could enjoy the warmth of Scully pressed back against his chest before he got restless enough to disturb them and move around. To his surprise, she grabbed his hands and crossed them around her waist, putting her hands on top and leaning her head back against his shoulder. "It hasn't warmed up much in here yet, and I'm beginning to wonder if it will," she said, looking up at the overcast sky framed by the skylights. She shifted, then spread her legs and brushed crumbs from the mattress onto the floor before settling back against him and crossing both of her legs to one side. "I'm sure you'll be really disappointed if we have to stay like this all day."

"Oh, shoot me now," he said drolly, unable to resist nuzzling her silky hair and wondering how it was that she still smelled so good. Personally he wished he had a toothbrush more than anything else. "How about you? Are you absolutely disgusted with having to be cuddled up to me?"

"No, as long as you stay on the side of the line we agreed on," she said.

"When did we agree on a line?"

She twisted to glance up at him and he looked back down at her with eyebrows raised. "Yesterday," she said succinctly, turning to face forward again.

"When yesterday?" Two could play that game.

"When you said we could be just friends and lovers, and I said that wasn't enough," she replied.

He ran back over the conversation in his mind's eye. "Scully, you said, and I quote, 'We barely manage as friends at times, never mind lovers'. I thought you meant that you didn't want us to be in a relationship _other_ than as friends and lovers."

She leaned to the side and turned to look up at him again. He raised his right leg and put his hand on his knee, making a backrest for her so she could move over a little and they could see each other while still keeping warm. "And I thought you said you didn't want to be in a romantic relationship with me, Mulder. If you do, why'd you make that remark about just being friends and lovers?"

He wanted to smack himself on the forehead, but figured he'd been hurt enough in the last day or so to want to add to it. "Because I thought you didn't want more than that, Scully, and I'll take you any way I can get you," he said with all honesty, tired of the dance they'd been doing the last seven years. "Don't you know by now how I feel about you? I'll tell you again if you promise not to blow me off this time."

She frowned, then her eyes cleared and forehead smoothed out. "The Queen Anne fiasco," she said with dawning understanding. "In the hospital after Skinner and the Gunmen left, you said you loved me. You were pretty well drugged up and clearly out of it, so don't be annoyed that I didn't take you seriously."

It was now or never, and he felt his heart speed up and begin to pound but didn't let that stop him. He held her eyes, taking one last deep breath, and said, "I do love you, Dana Scully. _Really_ love you, as in the romantic sense. I'm not on drugs, stoned, or out of it from sleep deprivation or any other--"

Her warm fingers fell across his lips and she was smiling up into his eyes, really smiling, he was relieved to see. "I get it, Mulder, and I believe you—actually I've known it for a while," she said, then paused and lowered a hand to caress his, which was resting on her other hand, both of them on her bare belly. Later he would swear his heart stopped, because she got a very odd look on her face and he was momentarily certain that she was going to say that she didn't feel the same way about him. Then she continued, glancing away, "I didn't _want_ to fall in love with you, and I've fought it for years. But," and now she looked back up at him and he saw the answer in her expressive eyes before she even spoke it, "I did fall in love with you, I do love you, and I can't fight or deny it any longer."

Mulder wanted to kiss her upturned face but had to know one more thing before he did. "Why have you fought it, Scully?" he asked, frowning slightly as he gazed down into her clear blue eyes. "What's so wrong with me—other than the obvious, of course--that you don't want to fall in love with me?"

"It's not you, Mulder," she said immediately, then shrugged. He couldn't help but look at her breasts which jiggled enticingly. That started a physical reaction that he ignored for the moment, but hoped would be needed very shortly. "It's not you, it's my past," she said, then sighed and shook her head. "It's complicated and about my career and authority figures in my life, not you. But I'd rather not get into it right now. Let's just say I'm no longer concerned about it and leave it at that, shall we?"

"This is the part where I kiss you, right?" he smiled down at her, keeping in mind that he'd promised her several times that he wouldn't do anything she didn't want him to do.

"You'd damn well better," she said in a stern voice, but he saw the smile lurking in both her eyes and on her curling lips.

Without moving otherwise Mulder leaned forward, keeping his eyes open to watch her, and covered her lips with his. The heat of her mouth was almost shocking in its intensity and against the coolness of the room, and as his eyes fell closed he felt his body reacting predictably but ignored it for the moment. He wanted to savor this first real kiss between them, not being interrupted by stinging alien insects or holding back from being in a semi-public place or wondering if it was real--or even by his own distracting body.

She tasted of peanut butter and her own unique scent, her tongue dueling with his as their mouths slanted back and forth. He felt like he was melting into her, his universe shrunk down to this one point in time. Some time later they slowly parted, Scully giving one last tug at his lower lip with both of hers before they moved apart just enough to look at each other.

"Wow," she said, and a smile blossomed on her face that he thought was probably the most gorgeous thing he'd ever seen in his life even as he felt himself answering it with a smile of his own in return. "_That_ was well worth waiting seven years for."

"What, you don't count our other kisses?" he teased, reaching down to gently tuck an unruly auburn strand behind her ear. Then he leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose, something he'd wanted to do for more years than he could remember unless he put an effort into it.

Her smile became a grin, showing that rare dimple in her cheek. "The New Year's kiss was nice but not like _that_," she said meaningfully, her head tilting as she looked up at him with her lips parted.

You didn't have to hit him over the head, he thought giddily, to make him see what she wanted. This time he curled one hand around the back of her neck over her hair as he leaned in, and again was amazed by the warmth and response of her mouth against his. This was what he'd always dreamed of, of what kissing her would be like, and it was even better than his fantasies. "I could die happy right now," he breathed against her mouth as they slowly moved apart.

"You'd better not," she murmured back, slipping an arm around his back and the other around his waist and leaning against him, her breasts barely brushing his chest, face against his neck. "I've got plans for you, G-man."

He held her against him with his arms around her shoulders, not touching her anywhere he hadn't before, understanding tacitly that they weren't going any further until she let him know. Despite the urging of his small head he wanted to show her that he could be a gentleman even in this situation, especially after his gaffe earlier. "Oh? Care to tell me about them?" he said softly as he rested his cheekbone gently against the top of her head. Two days without shaving was making him rather prickly so he was careful not to scratch her with his face.

"Even better, I'll show you when we get out of here," she said, and sighed with what he hoped was contentment or impatience; either one was fine. "I don't know about you, but I can't stand the thought of CSM or Krycek watching us make love for the first time."

For a moment he blanked on what she was talking about, then it dawned. "Cameras, you mean?" he said. God, it felt good just to hold her like this and if he wasn't so physically aroused he suspected that he'd have been content with it. "You really think someone is watching us? Did you look for surveillance devices?"

"Watching and/or recording," she nodded. "Maybe even infrared at night. I didn't see anything when I looked over the room, but that certainly doesn't mean there aren't cameras and/or recorders we can't see or find. Especially in the vents I saw above the walls, we can't see them from here but that doesn't mean they can't see us."

"Damn," he said softly. That thought really hadn't occurred to him since they first woke up here, but he grudgingly admitted that she had a point. "So you mean I have to sit here and know you want to make the beast with two backs with me, but we can't because someone _might_ be watching us?"

She chuckled, and the feel of her breath on his neck made him shiver in a way that had nothing to do with cold. "That's about it. And just so you know, it's making _me_ equally frustrated. Trust me, I'm sure it's been as long for me as it has for you."

It then dawned on him that _that_ was what he'd been smelling since yesterday! God, it'd been so long since he'd smelled an aroused woman that it hadn't dawned on him but now that she said it, he knew that's what it was. No wonder he was standing at attention most of the time! Well, he wasn't going to push her but on the other hand... "The moment you decide you don't care if someone's watching or not, you just let me know," he said, making sure to keep his tone light and giving her a little squeeze against him. "Trust me, that is _not_ a deterrent on my part. Let 'em watch, I'm sure they'll learn a thing or two."

She laughed, lifting her head from his shoulder and smiling. Her clear eyes gleamed up at him, then they dipped for a moment before returning to hold his. "I'll have to think about whether or not they care enough to have an infrared camera watching us in the dark."

"In the meantime, maybe a little physical activity will help keep us occupied," he said, deciding to act on an idea he'd had yesterday. "How many sit-ups can you do, Scully?"


	6. Day 2 Cont

Day 2 - cont.

Exercise really did help you warm up, Mulder thought sometime later, even if it didn't exactly cool him down the way he'd hoped. It was supposed to be a distraction, not make his arousal even worse. But watching Scully do sit-ups, push-ups and, almost enough to give him a heart attack, jog in place while stunningly naked had only whipped him into a worse frenzy than when he'd been sitting on the bed with her in his arms.

She was showering and he was in her position from yesterday, sprawled on the bare mattress with head on folded arms, unabashedly watching. It was all he could do not to hump the mattress; he'd never gone this long without relieving himself when he needed to and it was really beginning to get uncomfortable especially laying on it like this. If she decided that she didn't want them performing for any possible watchers he was seriously considering asking her for as much privacy as they could give each other so he could take care of himself before he got a serious case of blue balls—maybe after dark. It was either that, lose his mind, or ignore her wishes in the matter... and he simply would never do the latter. From her reactions since they'd talked he knew he wouldn't have to talk her into it her, either. Just a well-timed and aimed caress would almost surely have her on her back, but that was not what he wanted. He wanted her to come to him because she really and honestly wanted to in all ways, not because he coerced her when she really wasn't comfortable with or ready for it.

The sun had come out a while back and the room was up to a comfortable temperature so they didn't need to cuddle, which he thought was probably a good thing. And it likely would help, he thought with some humor, if he could stop watching her but that wasn't about to happen, especially while she was in the shower. She seemed to be keeping her back to him except to rinse, but it didn't matter. Any part of her lovely body aroused him—or kept him aroused as the case may be. He needed to stop looking at her was what he needed, he thought, but how to do that? Then his eyes fell on the pair of boxes and he found his solution. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

By the time she left the shower he was back on the mattress and, despite himself, engrossed in 'The Taking of Pelham One Two Three' and mostly down—or at least no longer uncomfortably hard. "Oh my God, are you reading one of those condensed books?" Scully said as she walked over to him, slicking her wet but not dripping hair back behind her ears. She stopped a short distance from the bed, both eyebrows raised. "You've gone over to the dark side!"

He grinned up at her, splaying both hands over the book to keep it open as it kept wanting to fall closed. "Yeah, well, it's either that or go totally insane for real," he said. "Why don't you see if there's something in there you can stomach? I'll feel guilty if you don't."

She went over to the box and crouched, digging through the books. He couldn't take his eyes from her and watched avidly as the muscles in her thighs flexed and her breasts swayed with her movements. "These are from the nineteen-seventies, the early seventies. Not exactly the height of literature, unless they have 'Jaws' or 'The Exorcist'," she said, opening one book with an audible creak and then sneezing. Replacing it to one side of the box, she dug deeper. "Hey, there's an old Erma Bombeck in here! My mom used to read her column when I was little, and probably still does," she said with some excitement. "It's a compilation of her first four books. Now this might not be too bad."

She sprawled out next to him on her stomach, and he didn't say a word about her wet hair and possible mold. Despite himself Mulder became engrossed in the book again and later mused that a well-written good story was a well-written good story no matter how badly it was butchered. They broke for lunch some time later, but wordlessly agreed to go back to their books after that. Scully occasionally laughed out loud and then apologized, but he found it music to his ears.

They shifted around from time to time, brushing against each other but not really touching. He got up to use the bathroom and when he came back she was sitting against the wall with her legs straight out. Without thinking about it he picked up his book and rolled onto the mattress, laying his head on her upper thigh and smiling up at her before lifting his book and crossing his legs at the ankle. He felt her eyes on him, but she didn't protest. Sometime later he felt her fingers absently toying with the hair over his ear, and it was all he could do not to roll over and shove his face in her crotch.

By the time the light began to fade they were once again laying side by side on their stomachs, shoulders and hips just barely touching while their feet occasionally did battle at the end of the mattress. He had showered not long before and brought the push-light into the room, setting it at the end of the mattress that they'd unofficially designated the top.

"It's getting too dark to read, and especially without our reading glasses," Scully said, closing her book without marking her place and looking over at him. "The only problem is that, unlike yesterday, I am not sleepy or tired at all."

He did the same, setting the book to the side of the mattress then giving it a shove towards the foot so they wouldn't trip over it if they got up during the night. Grinning over at her Mulder wiggled his eyebrows and said, "There's plenty to do in the dark, Scully. Just give the word."

She laughed, bumping her shoulder against his then lowering her chin to her crossed forearms. "Mulder, you act like a man who hasn't gotten any in, oh, at least a year."

"I wish!" he said, playing along. "It's been so damn long I'm not sure I remember how Tab A fits into Slot B."

"Something tells me you'll remember just fine when the time comes," she said dryly, but he heard the humor in her voice.

It was now dark enough that she was just a pale blur in the darkness, but he felt her shiver. "Are you cold?"

"Getting that way; the temperature drops damn fast once the sun goes down."

Without another word he turned and gathered her to him, face-to-face, sliding one arm under her head and the other around her waist. The feel of her taut yet soft belly against his, more than anything else, got his heart beating hard. He hadn't kissed or touched her in a sexual way since their talk that morning but now he couldn't resist seeking out her mouth in the dimness, pulling her firm, smooth body close to his as her arms closed around him in return. He only meant to give her a friendly kiss, not actually start anything, but his body went on instant red alert and the next thing he knew, he was leaning over her, kissing her deeply with his erection back in full force and pressed against her thigh. She was responding, her hands roaming over his back and ass, rubbing her leg against him. The moment he realized what he was doing he backed off, tearing away and throwing himself back on the mattress away from her.

"Mulder, what the...? What's wrong?" she said from the near-perfect darkness.

"I'm sorry, Scully. I didn't mean to start that. I know you don't want..."

"To hell with that! Don't you _dare_ stop! Trust me, I've changed my mind!"

"But I don't want it to be like this for us. I don't want our first time in the dark, unable to see each other, only doing this because we're trapped like two animals in a cage. I didn't want to coerce you into it when you really didn't want to."

He saw her sit up, a vaguely lighter shape in the dimness. "Mulder, sometimes, I swear... remember, I told you earlier I'd let you know if I changed my mind? Well, consider this notice that it's changed and not just because we're trapped here together. I've wanted you for years now and the only reason I never did anything about it was because I was more worried about what us becoming involved romantically could mean to my career and our long-term friendship than what I really wanted. Well, to hell with that. For once in my life, just once, I'm going for what _I_ want!"

He wasn't sure if he should grab her or get as far away as he could before he snapped, which wasn't far given the size of the room. Scully had a tendency to monologue but this was a new one on him; for once she wasn't debunking whatever crazy theory he'd thrown at her but telling him her heart. After all the years she'd kept her feelings and deepest thoughts separate from him, the dam had broken in one night.

He felt her hands on his arm, moving up from his elbow, but couldn't bring himself to move away again. "Scully..."

She stopped, holding his bicep with both of her hands. "Do you really mean that, Mulder? That you don't want our first time together to be in the dark because we can't see each other?"

"Well, yeah, and that I feel like I'm taking advantage of you. You wouldn't be considering sleeping—I mean, doing the horizontal mambo with me if we weren't here. If we hadn't been kidnapped we'd both be in our respective apartments either watching TV or going to bed right about now. Correct?"

Her voice was hesitant at first but became firmer as she spoke. "Well, yeah, but look at it this way. Maybe it took us being here to break us out of our rut."

He mulled it over for a few seconds, then covered her hands with his free one. The faint dripping of the faucet was the only sound in the room besides their breathing before he finally spoke. "Scully, let me make one thing clear right here and now. I want you so bad that I'm barely holding onto sanity, but I don't want you to regret it tomorrow morning."

"Will you?" she asked quietly.

He sighed. "I may regret that our first time happened like this rather than being the romantic getaway I'd always fantasized about, but I'll never regret being with you, Scully. Never. No matter where, how or why."

"You did? What did you fantasize?"

He let out a short bark of unamused laughter, throwing the arm she wasn't holding over his eyes even though it was now too dark to see much of each other than pale blurs. "What _didn't_ I fantasize about when it came to us? I think my favorite was dragging you off to a remote Caribbean island for a month and doing nothing but balling our brains out everywhere but up in a tree."

"Really? I had no idea," she said, and by the tone of her voice he thought she liked it. "I have to admit, I've thought we'd end up losing it and jumping each other either in a car or in the office. Hell, that's where we spend most of our time."

This time his laughter was genuine and he rolled onto his side, dislodging her hands but reaching out to capture her fingers in his before they got away. "I never thought about a car but in the office, yes," he agreed. "I had a lot of thoughts about the office even if it wasn't my number one fantasy. And the ladies' room in the basement, I always wanted to drag you off there for a quickie—_after_ our first time, of course."

"Of course," she agreed with warmth in her voice. Though they were touching nowhere but their hands, he could feel how close she was to him. "So, you don't want our first time to be tonight?"

He bit his lip. "Yes and no," he said, feeling the throb of his erection, which had not gone down one iota during this conversation. Not surprisingly. "I want you desperately, Scully, I want to make love to you all night long. But I think part of that is the physical; I've never gone so long without relief before."

"You mean without ejaculating?"

Thank god she couldn't see his face, he thought. He probably had one hell of an interesting expression hearing her say that so matter-of-factly. "Yeah. Exactly. That's what's driving me for tonight, otherwise I really would much rather wait until we're out of here and if not on an island in the Bahamas, in one of our apartments with the phones shut off and a dozen candles around the bed. Preferably with a bottle of good wine on the nightstand with an entire weekend or more to explore each other."

"Oh, Mulder," she said softly, squeezing his fingers. "I want that too. But, like you," she continued in a more pragmatic voice, "I have needs as well. Physical needs. Although I'm not quite as, uh, obvious as you about it, I do masturbate when I need to and I'm being denied that relief as well."

That didn't help his roiling desire any and he told her so. "Perhaps we should... give each other some privacy, as much as we can in this small room, in the dark," he said slowly, remembering his thoughts from earlier.

"You mean to physically relieve ourselves?"

He was glad she hadn't used the clinical word again because it probably would have driven him over the edge and he didn't want to make a mess on the mattress they had to sleep on. "Yeah," he managed to croak out.

She was silent for a time, and it was all he could do not to reach down with his other hand and grasp himself or roll against her warm body again. With the conversation being what it was he'd forgotten about the chill in the air, but it was back and he was beginning to shiver.

"I have a better idea," she said in a husky voice he'd never heard from her before but one that sank to the bottom of his belly and lodged there. "It's absolutely ridiculous for us to suffer like this, Mulder. While I understand that we both want to wait, there _is_ this."

Her hands left his and moved to his torso, then slid down over his stomach until they stopped just short of touching him, cupping his hipbones. She moved around, then he felt her soft lips brushing against his chest like an electric shock--and moving lower. "Scully...!"

"Mulder... let me take care of you... God, I want to, so badly..."

"Only if you turn around," he said huskily. "This isn't a one-way street. Takes two to tango."

She sucked in her breath, but he felt the mattress dip as she moved and reached out to find her leg and guided her so that he was able to kiss her flat belly and wrap his arms around her hips. They were on their sides facing each other and he vaguely noted that their dissimilar heights didn't seem to be causing a problem. "I love you so much, Scully," he murmured. "So damn much."

"Oh Mulder, I love you too," she whispered against the quivering skin of his stomach, then she found her target. He wasn't sure if he let out a strangled shout or scream. Whichever, it apparently spurred her to further action.

He suddenly realized that he was just laying there groaning and sighing and receiving, and no matter how incredible it felt that was no way to treat a lady and he knew it. Doing his best to not be distracted by what she was doing to him, he turned his attention to her. He heard her breathing hitch and she let out a soft moan, but that wasn't good enough—if she could make him scream at first touch, he could certainly try to do the same for her. Moving his hands to the inside of her thighs, he spread them even further and leaned forward, bending down a little, to taste what smelled so damn inviting.

The sound she made, while not quite a scream, was definitely the most satisfying thing he'd ever heard in his life.

Some time later he laid one arm out flat as she moved around and then curled up next to him. As he pulled her tighter against him with both arms around her he managed to say, "I know what you mean about head spinning, Scully," he said, alluding to a remark she'd made just a short time ago. "Holy God. I'm not sure mine's still on."

Her face moved against his shoulder in what he thought was a smile as she cuddled close, throwing one leg over both of his and an arm across his chest. "Think we'll survive an entire night when we're able to see each other?" she said in a clearly happy-sounding if tired voice. "If we're that, uh, enthusiastic in pitch darkness just having oral sex I can only imagine..."

"I'll chance it," he chuckled, turning to kiss her hair as her voice trailed off. "And I plan on more than a single night, Scully. If that's all you're planning for you'd better clear your calendar."

She laughed, low, and rubbed her face against his shoulder. "I think tomorrow morning may be that time in the light," she said softly. "I already can't wait."

Despite just having had the best and most intense orgasm of his life so far, Mulder was amazed to feel himself twitching, though it wasn't able to do much more than that at the moment. "Tomorrow morning, then, Scully, it's a date," he said, then yawned and chuckled. "You won't think less of me if I pass out now, will you?"

His answer was a soft snore, and he dozed off hold her feeling better than he ever had in his life.


	7. Day 3

**Day 3**

She woke again feeling odd and uncomfortable, but this time when she opened her eyes it was to the interior of a car. A very familiar car in what appeared to be golden early morning sunlight, surrounded by thick forest. But before her mind got much farther, she felt her stomach roil and barely got the door open in time before she leaned out over the ground and vomited.

"Scully?" Mulder's voice, but weak. He coughed for a time, deep ratcheting coughs, then groaned.

"Here," she rasped, then coughed and spit several times, wiping her mouth on her sleeve as she leaned back in the seat and weakly pulled the door closed to stop the dinging bell that signaled an open door.

Sleeve?!

Despite the pounding in her head, uncertain stomach and horrible taste in her mouth, she made herself sit up and look around. Mulder sat behind the steering wheel with his eyes closed, rubbing his forehead with a terribly pained look on his darkly-stubbled face, wearing a loose, sleeveless grey t-shirt and sweatpants but barefoot. She was wearing the same dark burgundy Donna Karan suit and beige shell top she'd worn to work on Friday, although she could tell by the lack of restrictions that she didn't have any underclothes on. Or shoes.

"Where the hell are we, Mulder, and how did we get here?" she asked through the pounding headache, closing her eyes and afraid to look around any more as her stomach felt about to rebel again.

"We're in my car... the thirty-six hours must be up," he said slowly. "But as to where we are... I don't have a frigging clue."

With that it all came flooding back: the white-walled room, being unable to reach the skylights, both of them naked, cuddling together for warmth... her stomach heaved again but she gritted her teeth and held on with iron determination. She hated to vomit more than anything, even cry. A small moan slipped out as she closed her eyes and gritted out, "Are you sick to your stomach?"

"Yeah, but not too bad... this headache's a killer, though."

"We should lay down, that would probably help, but I don't see how."

"No, we've got to find out where we are and get home," Mulder said, and she opened her eyes to see him reaching for the keys that were dangling from the ignition. "Everyone's got to be--"

"Better not, not yet," Scully said, leaning over to put a hand on his bare forearm. "We're still suffering from chloroform aftereffects. Wait until you're sure you can drive safely." At her touch he paused, and they gazed at each other openly for a moment frozen in place. Then she frowned. "What's the last thing you remember, Mulder?" she said, trying to concentrate as both of their arms fell back to their sides.

"Uh... reading," he said hesitantly. "Laying on that damn bare mattress and reading, trying not to look at you because I kept getting aroused. You took a shower after our workout then came and laid down next to me. We were both reading. Something else... something important... but I can't remember what it was. Maybe it'll come to me once this headache goes back."

"Yeah, the last thing I remember is laying on the mattress reading Erma Bombeck," she agreed. Looking around again now that her stomach was quieting, she saw nothing but thick forest on both sides and the overgrown double-rutted track the car sat on. She became aware of her dry mouth and added, "I wish I had a bottle of that cold water now, I'm really thirsty."

"I keep a case of bottled water in the trunk with emergency supplies," Mulder said, taking the keys out of the ignition and slowly getting out of the car. "Might be warm, but better than nothing."

She joined him at the back of the car, stepping carefully around the small pile of vomit in her bare feet. To her relief the bottle of Ice Mountain he handed her was still cool. Once her thirst was slaked she found that she felt much better though she'd have traded one of her arms for a Tylenol to take the edge off of the thumper of a headache.

In the trunk they also found their underclothes, shoes, and the two books they'd been reading. Without a word each took their underthings and, standing at the back of the car, undressed enough to put them on without obviously looking at each other. At this point, Scully thought, they really didn't have any secrets. They didn't touch the books, hoping prints could be lifted from them, but they already suspected that their kidnappers were too smart for that.

"We couldn't have been here long before we woke up," Mulder said thoughtfully, half-sitting on the bumper to put his Reeboks on over bare feet; her nylons and his socks were nowhere to be found. Nor, they discovered when they went looking, were their cell phones or ID of any kind. "The water's still cool, the interior of the car isn't hot, and I don't feel cramped or like I've been sitting very long."

She nodded. "We're mostly in the shade so the inside of the car wouldn't heat up that much, but I don't feel cramped or sore either." She paused, thinking, but decided not to mention that now that most of the chloroform symptoms were going away that she physically felt good. Almost... satisfied, was the first word that came to mind. Glancing at her arm, she saw that she once again wore her watch. "It's barely eight in the morning, and the last thing I remember is it getting dark last night... something tells me we were moved here this morning and not last night. They must have chloroformed us after we went to sleep, but I don't remember dozing off."

Mulder stood up straight, rubbing his temple as he took a long drink of water. "Well, I feel better other than this headache, which we know will linger for a while. What say you we find our way out of here?"

She agreed, and after a brief but intense discussion on which way they should go ("I'd bet the car is facing the way we should drive." "No, I think they pulled it in and we need to back up.") Mulder inched his grey Tempo down the rutted, overgrown dirt track until they eventually came to a narrow two-lane paved road. Without discussion he turned right, and it wasn't more than a few minutes before they came to an intersection with street signs although they were still surrounded by rural forest with no signs of habitation. Again he turned right as Scully got the map out of the glove box, and nearly jumped out of his skin when she exclaimed, "We're just north of Baltimore! Near Cockeysville, it looks like. No more than an hour and half from D.C. Keep going the way you are, looks like we're heading southeast by the angle of the sun."

"I'm for looking for a restaurant so we can get some breakfast—I'm starving. I don't think we had dinner; if we did I've since forgotten it and my stomach tells me we didn't," he said, stepping on the gas. "You?"

"Sounds good, but I want a painkiller even more," she said. "See if you can find a party store or a gas station first, then we'll go eat."

"We need to stop and get gas anyway," he said. "That's funny, I filled it up on the way home Friday."

They both fell silent, thinking. A short time later they came to a town that was no more than a wide spot in the road but it had a BP gas station, and both went to use the restrooms first thing.

Scully bought a small bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol and two large bottles of ice-cold Evian water as well as a box of Hostess donuts for Mulder; there was nothing even vaguely healthy to eat in the store and she preferred to wait until they found a restaurant.

When she went back out to the car Mulder was nowhere in sight, then she saw him standing in the phone booth near the street gesturing and, from the looks of it, laughing. Finally he hung up the phone and walked over to her, once again rubbing his forehead. "What is it?"

"Scully, you are not going to believe this. I called Skinner and he said that he received a letter, supposedly from us, at his home on Saturday morning saying that we were eloping to Atlantic City and not to expect us until Tuesday at the very earliest. Apparently your mother got the same letter only hers arrived this morning, but luckily Skinner had contacted her when he got his. He also got one at the office."

Scully closed her mouth with a snap. "Did they believe it?" she managed to ask when she unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth.

"Skinner wasn't sure, but your mother told him that it couldn't be true, she'd have known if you were planning something like that. But they agreed to wait until Tuesday to take action and see if we showed up—which we have."

"It's Monday, isn't it?"

"Yep. The kidnappers must have--"

She interrupted almost desperately. "Did you tell Skinner what happened? That we were naked?"

"I had to, Scully. We don't dare lie about any of this or they may not be able to backtrack us or find out who did it." He looked at her earnestly. "I also told Skinner that we were both totally professional about the whole thing, though not much more over the phone. He wants to see us first thing in the morning."

"I bet he does!" Scully dropped two Tylenol into her mouth and washed them down, then handed the small plastic bottle to him. As he shook the pills out she added, "I just hope this doesn't get out around the Bureau. We're already being called names and made fun of now, can you imagine..."

As her voice trailed off he said, "Don't worry, he assured me that he won't tell anyone. He's calling your mother right now, so don't worry about her for the moment. Let's get home."

She heaved a sigh as they got back in his car. "Did you get gas?"

"Yeah, we're all set. Scully..." She looked over to find him gazing at her with serious dark eyes, a slight frown between them. The keys were in the ignition and his hands on the wheel, but the car was not running yet. "Did something... happen? Did we do anything... sexual?"

"I... I get the feeling we did, but I don't remember anything specific," she said, holding his eyes. "I don't feel like I've had intercourse, but my body does feel sexually satisfied. Do you think we might have done something in our sleep before they chloroformed us?"

His brows went up. "Maybe. I feel the same way."

They looked at each other openly, and finally Mulder leaned forward to kiss her with his hands still on the steering wheel. Scully hesitated, then met him halfway. It was more of the gentle friendly kiss that they'd shared on New Year's Eve rather than the passionate ones in the room, but she felt the question he silently asked and just as silently answered it.


	8. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"Well, it's not the Bahamas but this isn't bad at all," Scully said as she strolled over to the window overlooking the bay carrying her champagne flute.

Mulder followed, standing behind her and gazing out at the spectacular sunset. He leaned over and tapped his glass against hers, saying, "To waiting. Well worth it."

"Yes, it was," she agreed softly as the crystal rang out, taking a sip then leaning back against him as he set his glass on a nearby dresser and wrapped both arms around her upper chest, nuzzling her hair and bringing her back against his hard warm body.

"Seems like our two-person nudist colony experience changed you a little, Scully," he said softly just above her ear. "Standing in front of an uncovered window in broad daylight. Well, the sun _is_ going down but it's still bright out."

"We're fifteen stories up and there are no buildings around that someone could see us from. But yes, I am more comfortable naked now than I was before we were kidnapped," she agreed, glancing down at his arms crossed above her bare breasts. Behind her he was equally nude. This was their third day in San Francisco and the only time they'd gotten dressed so far was to go down to the pool and Jacuzzi earlier. Even that hadn't lasted long before they'd come back to the room for another couple hours of lovemaking then ordered room service, which they had just finished. As she had guessed, not only were they incredibly good at sex together, they were insatiable and once started, didn't want to stop.

"If not for this, I'd wonder if that two days in the room really happened since we never did find out where we were kept," Mulder murmured, moving one hand down to slide over her breastbone, brushing her breasts, and then stop on her flat belly. She shivered as she looked down to see his large dark hand sprawled there, then covered his hand with her free one before taking another sip of bubbly. "I wanted to touch you so badly then... Speaking of, did anyone ever figure out what it was we were given?"

"The chloroform derivative? No, it's nothing anyone's ever seen before, probably some type of experimental drug. The good thing is that it doesn't seem to have done any long-term damage other than the minor memory loss, though I do want you go in and have more chest X-rays when we get back. You clearly got a heavier dose than I did."

"Yes, Doctor Scully," he said in a warm voice right next to her ear, causing a shiver that went straight to her center. His other hand journeyed down and covered hers, giving it a light squeeze, then moved lower as he bent over her shoulder, kissing the side of her neck. "In the meantime how about I show you just how healthy I am?"

She leaned her head back against his shoulder, reveling in the feel of his hard, muscular body against her and his hands all over her, sparking her low arousal into flame. Setting her champagne flute on the dresser next to his, she stretched up on her toes and looped her hands around his neck behind her, arching her back. "Again?" she teased lightly. "You've been healthy twice already today."

"And the evening's young yet," he murmured against her neck. "I can't get enough of you, Scully, the more we make love the more I want. And seeing you walking around naked--again!--is making me absolutely crazy."

"Aren't you glad we waited until we got here for our first time? This was _so_ worth it."

"God, yes!"

She turned in his arms and, already tangled together, they moved towards the high, wide canopy bed with its rumpled covers, her thoughts only on the man making love to her. No matter what had brought them here, it was the present that mattered.

_finis_


End file.
